DA says furloughs won’t affect cases

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Published on Wednesday, 15 February 2012 13:16

Employees to take two days of unpaid leave per month until June

Dale Denwalt
Daily Elk Citian

Because his office came up short on funding this year, employees in the district attorney's five-county area have begun taking two forced days off each month.

District Attorney Dennis Smith said he has the option of laying off employees, but he is already short on workers.

"If I reduce the employees more, that was going to create more of a hardship than having people taking two days a month off," he said. "We're hopeful it's going to be short-term. We felt like that was the best way to provide the services we're mandated to provide."

Everyone except for Smith will have to take two unpaid days off per month until the fiscal year ends in June. Smith must remain on the job because of state law.

"As an elected official, by statute, the provisions are that you can't do that," he said.

Smith said he does not foresee any cases being delayed or statutory requirements unmet, "but of course we don't know what's going to happen down the road."

The district, which prosecutes criminal cases in Beckham, Custer, Washita, Roger Mills and Ellis Counties, gets half their funds from the legislature, which will adopt a new state budget sometime later this spring. The other half comes from other collections like bogus check restitution, supervision fees and prosecution assessments.

Fees from bogus checks are down all over the state, said Smith.

"Last year was a down year for everybody. I really believe our numbers are going to be up, but we've still got about five months of the fiscal year," he said. "Without a crystal ball, it's hard to say. If we rely on last year's numbers, we're going to be short, and I've got to be prudent."

Of his approximately $2 million annual budget, about 95 percent goes toward salaries. Forcing each employee to take two days off per month will help close the gap in the budget.

Smith said he will be staggering furlough days so that the impact on each office will be less.

"I think we'll continue with the services we've had. I've got a good group of employees and they work hard," said Smith. "I hate it for them as much as anything. We've been doing more with less for these past three years. But again, we're going to fulfill our obligations. Our main function is to protect the public - that's what we intend to do."

The decision to furlough employees is the first time in his nine years in the office. Smith said if the downturn in appropriations had only lasted two years instead of three, he could have handled the situation without reducing man-hours.